Saturday, September 15, 2012

Whisky and whiskey in PI – A Brief

I lifted this from my friend KG’s FB Page – as I enjoyed and related to his perspective. I once lived in Germany, and if you said Whiskey – you only got Jack Daniels. In fact Jack was GOLD at that time, and bringing a bottle to a party immediately made you a Star. But I liked other whiskeys and beers (dont get me started on their love of Bud) – and luckily I stumbled onto Murphy’s Law in Augsburg.

Here is KG’s brief – hopefully he will write more for us in the future, especially about his experiences in the PI.

Cheers -

Whisky and whiskey in PI – A Brief.

Searching for a favorite Scotch or Bourbon can be both frustrating and enlightening. Unless you are in one of the larger cities, Manila, Cebu etc. your chance of finding a liquor/spirits shop is about 0%. Even in those cities that do have independent shops, their selection is minimal and replete with odd-bits and few familiar names. The majority of your time you will have to hope against hope that your local Mega-mall grocery store has some whiskey/whisky stocked.

Let me say it now and be upfront about it. Jack Daniels and Jim Beam are NOT bourbon! But they are the only "bourbon" I've seen here so far. Most certainly there are none of the wonderful small batch bourbons (or single malts) that I carried in my long lamented shop. Don't waste your time attempting to explain what bourbon is to the local clerk, he hasn't a clue and bourbon IS Jack Daniels in PI. The mega-groceries will usually have Jack, and only sometimes Jim. Their Scotch selections vary dramatically from shop to shop. Oddly, some of the ones I found hard to get in the US are mainstays here, Glendronach and Ben Riach for example. There were others that I hadn't seen before in the US as well. Irish is in very scarce supply with only Jameson's being seen so far. Canadians are virtually non-existent. The majority of whisky/whiskey found here are blendeds, from the ubiquitous Johnny Walkers, Crown Royal and Chivas, to lessor knows like Ben More 4 Casks and Sir Edwards Blended Whisky. Which actually brings me full circle to the reason for this post. I purchased a bottle of Sir Edwards and sipped it neat as well as on the rocks. Yes, barbarian I know, ice in whisky. Get over it. For about $10.00.... not a bad watch-the-sunset-go-down kind of whisky. The taste is a bit smokey, not a bit rough and passably drinkable. I preferred mine over ice, but then I'm in the tropics so cold is good. I'm a single-malt snob kinda guy, but considering the selection available as well as the inexpensive cost of Sir Edwards, I could get used to it. If you happen to see a bottle on the shelf, I'd recommend picking one up for a try. It would go especially well with a chewy Maduro cigar, Camacho double Maduro comes to mind.... *sigh*